Travel: Following in the footsteps of celebrated explorers Lewis and Clark

Steve Stephens More Content Now

Friday

Sep 14, 2018 at 5:41 PMSep 14, 2018 at 5:41 PM

OMAHA, Nebraska — America’s most celebrated travelers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, blazed a path that is still avidly followed by history buffs, nature lovers and anyone who enjoys exploring the scenic heartland of America.

Tasked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the new Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery set off from St. Louis in May 1804.

The journey to the Pacific Ocean and back took them more than two years to complete. The traveling is a lot easier these days. The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail runs over modern highways, with stops along the way showcasing places of significance.

Last month, I followed a 160-mile section of the trail along the Missouri River through what are now Nebraska and Iowa and ending in Vermillion, South Dakota. Although the Corps of Discovery spent most of August 1804 on the same route, I was able to cover the ground, exploring many interesting stops, in about two days.

My jumping-off point, appropriately, was the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Headquarters on the Missouri River in downtown Omaha.

The site contains a small visitors center and the Midwest regional headquarters of the National Park Service. It’s a great place to pick up brochures and maps, watch a short video about the Corps of Discovery and plan for your own voyage of discovery upriver.

I’d recommend taking time to explore the Omaha riverfront before setting out. A convenient bicycle-rental stand is just outside the park headquarters. Six bucks bought me an hour of bike time and let me explore at an easy speed, but one that still would have made Lewis and Clark envious.

The riverfront is lined with parks and event venues, including the Lewis and Clark Landing and the lovely Heartland of America Park and Fountain. One of the most outstanding riverfront features is the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, or the “Bob,” a gracefully curving suspension bridge linking Omaha with Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Confusingly, the city of Council Bluffs is about 20 miles downstream from the site that Lewis and Clark called the “council bluff,” which is now part of Fort Atkinson State Historical Park, my next stop. (The park, just as confusingly, is in the town of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.)

On the bluff high above the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark first met with Indians from the Otoe and Missouri tribes, exchanging gifts and information and setting a pattern for the rest of the journey. Life-size bronze statues near the actual site depict that first meeting. The tableau also includes Seaman, Lewis’ beloved Newfoundland dog who accompanied the corps and was sometimes mistaken by Indians for a bear.

In his journal, Clark also noted that the bluff would make a good place for a fort. The Army took notice and built Fort Atkinson there in 1820, making it the first fort west of the Missouri. The park features a replica of the fort on the original location, plus a museum with information about Lewis and Clark and the later military installation.

My next stops were several interesting sites on the Iowa side of the river in present-day Sioux City.

The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center is a large riverfront museum with larger-than-life depictions of Lewis, Clark and Seaman outside the entrance. Inside are many entertaining exhibits, including animatronic versions of Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and, yes, Seaman, who wags his tail and barks at a feisty, caged prairie dog.

Lewis and Clark are depicted at the graveside of Sgt. Charles Floyd, the expedition’s only fatality. Floyd died of an unknown illness, possibly appendicitis, and was buried by his comrades with full honors on a bluff above the river.

Floyd is also remembered at the adjacent Sergeant Floyd River Museum & Welcome Center. The museum, aboard the retired Coast Guard river inspection boat Sergeant Floyd, has more Lewis and Clark information, plus displays about the history of Missouri River navigation. Be sure to stop at the life-size depiction of Floyd, created using modern forensic techniques to closely resemble what the ill-fated man must have looked like in life.

Floyd’s grave is just downstream from the museums at the Sergeant Floyd Monument and Park, and it is topped by a 100-foot obelisk erected in 1901. The view from the bluff-top gravesite extends for miles across the Missouri. In 1960, the monument was named the first National Historic Landmark.My last stop was at Spirit Mound Historic Prairie, a South Dakota state park near the town of Vermillion.

Local Indians claimed that the mound, a natural formation, was inhabited by tiny demons who killed anyone who dared approach. Lewis, Clark and a few more from the corps ignored the threats and made the 9-mile hike to the mound from the mouth of the Vermillion River on a hot, steamy August day. (The shaggy, thick-coated Seaman had to turn back before reaching the mound.) They found no demons but “beheld a most butifull landscape” from the top.

Today, visitors can enjoy the same view after a much shorter hike: Less than a mile to the mound from the parking lot. That was plenty long for me, though. On my visit, on a hot August day like the one Lewis and Clark experienced, the demons were still in short supply, although the gravel path was filled, curiously enough, with prairie toads about the size of my thumb.

After running the tiny amphibian gantlet, I made my way up the steps (a convenience that Lewis and Clark did not enjoy) to the top of the mound. There I beheld a most “butifull” view of the restored prairie, indeed, while standing on the very spot once occupied by America’s greatest travelers.— Steve Stephens can be reached at sstephens@dispatch.com or on Twitter @SteveStephens.

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